ON Monday afternoon, the US Supreme Court temporarily lifted a restriction on Donald Trump’s “Muslim ban”. On a day of national mourning in America, and across the world, remembering the many people who lost their lives in the country’s worst terror attack, the President chose to overshadow the grief and solemnity of the anniversary with yet another clumsy and racially charged intervention.

In response to an emergency request from the Justice Department, a restriction involving over 24,000 refugees has been provisionally lifted. Only last week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that refugees, from the six mostly Muslim countries singled out by Trump, that had been granted assistance by refugee resettlement agencies in the US, would still be allowed to enter the country despite the travel ban.

This ruling had been due to take effect yesterday, hence the rushed request from the administration on Monday. However, with its reversal in place for the time being, these thousands of refugees are now left in limbo, stuck in detention camps or worse, their promised entry to America blocked.

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Trump reminds me of the drunk man at the bar who can’t accept he has lost the argument. Like a dog with a bone, the President and his administration continue to worry at the travel ban debacle, unable to let it lie and immune from the global outcry at its implementation.

In fact, his administration has consistently argued against every legal challenge to this controversial travel ban since it was first introduced. Even when the Supreme Court allowed sections of the executive order to take effect after the initial shutdown in January, there were still challenges led by his administration.

In June, the court ruled that travellers from Libya, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen would be allowed entry only if they had a bone fide familial relationship with a legal US resident. The White House team then challenged whether grandparents, or more distant relatives such as cousins, uncles and aunts, should be allowed into the country. It seemed so petty and unnecessary, so unseemly from a presidential perspective.

You’d think after what the President has witnessed in Florida and beyond from the terrible devastation left in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey that he would have more compassion for people in need, regardless.

In fact when you think about the government aid being given to these stricken communities, this aid in and of itself is not and cannot be discriminatory. People of all creeds, colour, religion or none, some maybe even quite new to living in America, will rightly benefit from government intervention as they try to put their lives back together.

The problem is, there are plenty of people who think his “Muslim Ban” argument has some weight, and not just the voters that believed he would “make America great again”. Supporters include far-right groups who up until very recently have stayed hidden in darker political corners. Trump’s subjective and often irrational political agenda stretches far beyond the White House, influencing attitudes across the globe.

BACK in Britain, Potus’ apparent great friend and confidante, Mr Nigel Farage, is just back from addressing a far-right rally in Berlin, where he earned a standing ovation from the crowd for his anti-immigration arguments.

The rally was organised by MEP Beatrix Von Storch, the granddaughter of a former Nazi cabinet member, who described Farage as a “role model” for her Alternative for Germany party.

The rise of this German party with their strong anti-refugee stance co-exists with the rise in populism in the United States and the recent election, not to mention the Brexit result in Britain.

And I certainly won’t spend much time on Trump’s other great British supporter, Katie Hopkins, other than to say that it is her brand of nasty rhetoric and intolerance that is responsible for whipping up much of the blind hatred of Muslims in the UK just now.

But what is important to remember is that Farage and his entourage are just an alarming sideshow, distasteful and distracting though it is. Much more worryingly, the real action is happening in the corridors of power in the White House, where racism and anti-Muslim sentiment is being written into the very fabric of their immigration policy.

Although this administrative stay may only be in place for a short period while the Supreme Court reviews challenges to its revised ban, it is still a blow to the refugees desperately seeking to enter the country.

In October, the Supreme Court is due to hear wider arguments on whether the travel ban is in itself unconstitutional and discriminatory. If the last six months are anything to go by, then nothing can be taken for granted during this legal process and the potential outcome is far from clear-cut.

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